A study by Kyung Hee Kim, professor of education for the College of William and Mary in Virginia, focused on the creativity of school age children between kindergarten and 12th grade using the measurement known as the Torrance tests of creative thinking.

He found a ‘massive’ decline of creativity the longer the students progressed through the school system as ‘children have become less emotionally expressive, less energetic, less talkative and verbally expressive, less humorous, less imaginative, less unconventional, less lively and passionate, less perceptive, less apt to connect seemingly irrelevant things, less synthesizing, and less likely to see things from a different angle.’

These are all traits of the expansive, maverick, dot-connecting right hemisphere of the brain which the education (programming) system suppresses to allow the left-brain to dominate perception and collectively create a left-brain society.

Young people all over the world stress and worry waiting for their exam results desperately hoping that they have successfully told the system what it has told them to believe. I left school aged 15 (couldn’t wait) to play professional football and never took a major exam in my life. Phew, what an escape.

Exam passes and degrees allow you to choose a specialisation of science, medicine, academia, law or even politics and media which are dominated by degree-passers. Would-be scientists, doctors, academics and the like then take more exams and tell their speciality institutions what they have been told to believe, and if they do this very well they become a ‘scientist’, doctor, lawyer or professor of something or other and they may even be so successful that they go on to run those institutions. How lovely, except for one little problem.

It’s all BOLLOCKS.

This ‘rational logic’ based on ‘observable evidence’ is illusion. What is considered ‘rational’ is merely a point of observation dictated by your sense of what is real. If that sense of reality is bloody nonsense to start with then so will be your ‘rationality’ and the same with what is perceived to be ‘logical’.

This is in keeping with the so-called ‘Icke’s Law’, discovered by a man called David Icke after long experience and much observation, which contends that bollocks begets bollocks. It is, apparently, closely associated with the law of cause and effect.

Bollocks begets bollocks and that is why human society is drowning in bollocks.

In 1997-98, viruses, bacteria and other microbes started mutating out of control. Disease-causing agents have been evolving extremely rapidly, and strangely, since then.

Life scientists reported an "evolutionary crisis," and "accelerated evolutionary processes." As early as 2002, scientists warned of new infectious diseases appearing and old diseases reemerging due to a "complex interaction of social, economic, evolutionary, and ecological factors."

It all goes back to 1997.

What happened in 1997?

Simply put, a number of factors new to the earth's systems converged, and interracted in new, and unprecedented, ways. The interracting 'factors' include escaped pathogens, lab accidents, GM animals and food, factory farming, pollution, chemical contaminations, and more - categorized broadly as "social, economic, evolutionary, and ecological factors."

Several local biological systems around the world reached individual points of "self-organizing criticality," where the rules changed.

What is "Self-organizing Criticality"?

"Self-organizing" means that things can come together in new ways, re-organize on their own, and change the system's established rules.

"Criticality" describes the pivotal 'point' in time and place where factors converge to trigger or allow a system to self-organize.

"Self-organizing Criticality" is like Artificial Intelligence, except it happens naturally in nature. The main idea is that complex change, or "natural complexity," can emerge spontaneously from simple local interactions - not just on a computer or in a laboratory.

...the complexity observed emerged in a robust manner that did not depend on finely-tuned details of the system: variable parameters in the model could be changed widely without affecting the emergence of critical behaviour (hence, self-organized criticality). Thus, the key result of BTW's paper was its discovery of a mechanism by which the emergence of complexity from simple local interactions could be spontaneous — and therefore plausible as a source of natural complexity — rather than something that was only possible in the lab (or lab computer) where it was possible to tune control parameters to precise values.wiki

Where's the evidence?

In 1997-98 several 'biological events' signaled a number of distinct 'points of self-organizing criticality' around the world, mainly unrelated. Here are a few highlights:

1997

1. An H5N1 bird flu lethal to humans appeared in Hong Kong; the virus jumped directly from birds to people without going through a traditional "mixing vessel" like pigs (a jump previously considered impossible).

Instead of reassorting to form hybrids in some sort of transitional species mixing vessel, H5N1 is directly attacking the human species, as the 1918 virus is presumed to have done, via an “adaptation of a smoldering avian progenitor.”

2. A previously human H3N2 flu virus appeared in pigs in the USA, and was found to be a "triple assortment" virus, with 'genes' derived from human, swine and bird flu viruses.

...Viruses of the classical H1N1 lineage were virtually the exclusive cause of swine influenza (in the United States and Canada) from the time of their initial isolation in 1930 through 1998. Antigenic drift variants of these H1N1 viruses were isolated in 1991-1998, but a much more dramatic antigenic shift occurred with the emergence of H3N2 viruses in 1997-1998. In particular, H3N2 viruses with genes derived from human, swine and avian viruses have become a major cause of swine influenza in North America. ...H1N2 viruses that resulted from reassortment between the triple reassortant H3N2 viruses and classical H1N1 swine viruses have been isolated subsequently from pigs in at least six states.

At a press conference on May 23, 1997, scientists finally acknowledged the arrival of untreatable bacteria they had feared for years - bacteria that resist antibiotics. Drugs which have kept us safe for 50 years were beginning to fail, they said. ...Today, superbugs look triumphant and this is a serious situation. Over the last five years, scientists have clearly seen a change in their ability to tackle what should have been easily treatable infections, because bacteria are developing the ability to resist antibiotics.

"Only recently recognized as human pathogens, ...Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora have been shown to be transmitted through fecally contaminated food and water. The mode of transmission for microsporidia is still unclear. The laboratory diagnosis of these protozoa is difficult. The routine ova and parasites screen does not include screening for them."

...the 1998 isolate, A/Wisconsin/10/98, (an H1N1 swine flu infecting a human), ...was a reassortant that contained a mixture of swine, human, and avian influenza A virus genes. ...Reassortant viruses with human influenza A H3 and N2 surface glycoproteins and internal protein genes of swine, avian and human influenza A viruses were recently isolated in the US from multiple outbreaks of respiratory disease in pigs. ...The genotype of A/Wisconsin/10/98 provides further evidence for reassortment between avian, human and swine influenza A viruses and demonstrates that such reassortant viruses can infect humans.

"Recognized as waterborne parasites, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, and Cyclospora have now been associated with several foodborne outbreaks. The oocysts and cysts of these organisms can persist and survive for long periods of time both in water and on foods. As a result, these parasites have emerged as public health risks and have become a concern to the food industry. Control and prevention of protozoan foodborne disease depends upon our ability to prevent, remove, or kill protozoan contaminants. This review will address the biology, foodborne and waterborne transmission, survival, and methods for detection and control ...."

8. Researchers realize that prion diseases like Mad Cow are probably being spread by bacteria and other microbes.

"Epidemiological observations indicate that a microbial vector is responsible for the transmission of natural prion disease in sheep and goats … ...It is proposed that many microbial proteins may be capable of replicating themselves in mammalian cells eliciting and sustaining thereby degenerative and/or autoimmune reactions subsequent to infections with microorganisms."

"These findings, ...clearly demonstrate the presence of low level, asymptomatic infections in post-weaned and adult cattle in the United States and indicate the potential role of such cattle as reservoirs of infectious parasites."

"This is the first time that parasites have been detected on vegetables and fruit obtained in a highly developed. wealthy country, without there being an outbreak situation. These findings may have important implications for global food safety."

"The presence of human pathogenic parasites in irrigation waters used in the production of crops traditionally consumed raw suggests that there may be a risk of infection to consumers who come in contact with or eat these products."

12. Waterborne diseases change dramatically - from the way they're transmitted, to their incidence and prevalence. In addition, new and reemerging infectious diseases are seen to be "occurring through a complex interaction of social, economic, evolutionary, and ecological factors."

"As the epidemiology of waterborne diseases is changing, there is a growing global public health concern about new and reemerging infectious diseases that are occurring through a complex interaction of social, economic, evolutionary, and ecological factors."

13. Water treatment and disinfecting protocols stop working; standard tests do not reveal new strains and pathogens.

"The results confirm the resistance of Clostridium perfringens spores, enteroviruses and protozoa to chlorination and demonstrate the relative persistence of these organisms in the effluents even during the ultraviolet light treatment. The yields also emphasise the influence of the analytical method for the determination of protozoan parasites."

"The transmission of Cryptosporidium and Giardia through treated water supplies that meet water quality standards demonstrates that water treatment technologies have become inadequate, and that a negative coliform no longer guarantees that water is free from all pathogens, especially from protozoan agents. Substantial concern persists that low levels of pathogen occurrence may be responsible for the endemic transmission of enteric disease. In addition to Giardia and Cryptosporidium, some species of genera Cyclospora, Isospora, and of family Microsporidia are emerging as opportunistic pathogens and may have waterborne routes of transmission. More than 15 different groups of viruses, encompassing more than 140 distinct types can be found in the human gut. Some cause illness unrelated with the gut epithelium, such as Hepatitis A virus (HAV) and Hepatitis E virus (HEV). The most striking concern is that enteric viruses such as caliciviruses and some protozoan agents, such as Cryptosporidium, are the best candidates to reach the highest levels of endemic transmission, because they are ubiquitous in water intended for drinking, being highly resistant to relevant environmental factors, including chemical disinfecting procedures."

14. Flies are able to express prion proteins, and spread prion diseases along with other ectoparasites.

Animal prion infections, such as scrapie (sheep) and "mad cow disease" (cattle), have shown a pattern of horizontal transmission in farm conditions and several ectoparasites have been shown to harbor prion rods in laboratory experiments. Fly larvae and mites were exposed to brain-infected material and were readily able to transmit scrapie to hamsters. New lines of evidence have confirmed that adult flies are also able to express prion proteins. Several cell types found on the human skin, including keratinocytes, fibroblasts and lymphocytes, are susceptible to the abnormal infective isoform of the prion protein, which transforms the skin to produce a potential target for prion infection.

By 2003, the local points of self-organizing criticality seemed to be converging globally. It was clear that a global point of self-organizing criticality had been, or was about to be reached.

By 2005, Super Bugs were an everyday reality - and some had evolved to feed on antibiotics. Everything from protozoa to bacteria and viruses had developed resistance to standard treatment and disinfecting protocols, and many had acquired all-new epidemiologies.

Doctors know C. difficile flourish after patients take certain antibiotics. Now it seems any antibiotic can bring on the disease.

..."Something happened 18 to 24 months ago, where the use of particular antibiotics didn't seem to matter anymore," said Dr. Mark Miller, chief of infectious diseases at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital.

Much has happened biologically speaking since scientists sounded their first warnings in the 1970's, and again, rang the alarm bells in 1997.

MRSA flesh-eating disease is now community-acquired, and can be transmitted sexually. Multi-resistant tuberculosis is virtually pandemic. Diseases like salmonella and e.coli, once only able to infect animals, now are able to infect plants.

Unheard of biological events have been happening: animal diseases infecting plants and vice versa; different microbial species exchanging genes; bacteria dangerous to humans have begun evolving in insects. Now, genes are being exchanged across Super Kingdom barriers. The list goes on.

In recent years, the number of outbreaks from (E. coli) contaminated produce has far surpassed those from beef and poultry and has drawn nearly even with those linked to seafood, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition advocacy group. While there are more food-borne outbreaks related to seafood, far more people get sick from produce outbreaks, the group found. NYT

***

New E. coli study could shed light on movement of GM bacteria

A recent study published in the January 2002 edition of Applied and Environmental Microbiology documents the transmission of a potentially pathogenic strain of E. coli from manure-contaminated soil and water into the roots and leaves of lettuce plants. ...E. Ann Clark, co-author of this article, point out that the Rutgers study may shed light on the pathways of movement of genetically engineered bacteria amongst soil, plants and insects.

After growing lettuce in composted manure, each gram of which they had inoculated at a rate of 100 million E. coli 0157:H7 organisms, the Rutgers research team documented a buildup of the pathogenic bacterium within plant leaves. Because the accumulation was within the leaves, not on them, simply washing the leaves in water would not cleanse or remove them.

"The vast majority of manure used in this country is supplied to chemical (non-organic) farms," says Brian Leahy, president of the California Certified Organic Farmers. Yet, the USDA does not regulate the use of manure on chemical farms, whereas it does in organic agriculture.

"Scientists have evidence that bacteria dangerous to humans have begun evolving in insects, for reasons that are not clear.

The October edition of Nature Reviews: Microbiology reports that invertebrates such as worms and insects may have begun enabling a rapid evolution for bacteria normally not harmful to humans. Not only are insects capable of delivering disease through bites and stings, they now may be the breeding ground for strains of infectious bacteria never before seen in humans."

Two Faculty Members have selected for evaluation a paper identifying a surprising case of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of eukaryotic cytoskeletal proteins to a prokaryotic cyanobacterium.

Mohan Balasubramanian (National University of Singapore, Singapore), a Faculty of 1000 Biology Member for Cell Biology, remarks: "This is the first report of a true actin (i.e. not MreB or ParM related) in a bacterium".

Debashish Bhattacharya (University of Iowa, USA), a Genomics & Genetics Faculty Member, also commented on the paper, saying: "The fact that this rare direction of transfer was detected in a cultivated sample and in limited analyses of natural extracts suggests that eukaryote to prokaryote HGT may occur more frequently in nature than previously thought." Are eukaryotic genes spreading in prokaryotic populations?f1000biology

None of this should be possible; it never was before.

So the situation is clear. Something happened. Now, the most fundamental rules of biology have changed, and our bio-world is spinning out of control.

H1N1 swine flu is only the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

We do not need bio-terrorists to create and release super-plagues - our world can do it all on its own, using the pollution and contaminants we already created and released for profit and power.

There is much more information, maybe better references, more to be said, and links to be created - but I hit the wall and just wanted to get this posted.